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On a lovely July night, with winnings in his pocket from the weekly poker game, Archie Goodwin is almost home when someone in a dark sedan shoots at him - twice. Neither shot hits him. Is that deliberate or just fortuitous? The next morning, someone calls for Nero Wolfe. The person won't leave a name and informs Wolfe (and Archie, because Archie is listening in on the other line) that Archie is going to die. Not because Archie has done anything wrong, but because the shooter has some animus towards Mr Wolfe and concedes that killing Mr Wolfe would be far more difficult than killing Archie. A practical person, this would-be killer knows s/he will be doing grievous harm to Wolfe's lifestyle by killing Archie.
Wolfe takes this threat seriously, as well he should. He and Archie start going over all their cases for the last twenty years, as Wolfe feels that anything older than that would be fruitless. Suitable precautions are taken on Archie's part - he must use the back entrance for the foreseeable future, much as he dislikes skulking about. After much checking and cross-checking of old cases, the list of probables is narrowed down to a measly four. Then the real investigating begins.
This is the tenth book in Goldsborough's continuation of the Nero Wolfe series, authorized by Rex Stout's estate . The writing style is quite good, although I've never read a Stout and a Goldsborough back-to-back in order to compare them. The plotting is excellent and the characterizations are very good. At barely over 200 pages, I would almost consider this a novella; some of Stout's books weren't much longer, so even that is consistent. Having read several of the earlier books in the series, I can attest that Goldsborough does a reasonably good job of carrying Stout's legacy onward. It doesn't compare to some of Stout's gems, and that's OK. A good read is always pleasant to find.
§ P.J. Coldren lives in northern lower Michigan where she reads and reviews widely across the mystery genre when she isn't working in her local hospital pharmacy.
Reviewed by P.J. Coldren, March 2015
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